


baby, we're the new romantics

by annemari



Category: BBC Radio 1 RPF, One Direction (Band)
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-10-04
Updated: 2015-10-04
Packaged: 2018-04-24 19:50:02
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,348
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4933015
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/annemari/pseuds/annemari
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>
  <i>Louis leans forward and shouts over the whole room, "Hey, Grimmy, what did you do to your hair? Had a fight with a lawn mower?"</i>
</p>
<p>
  <i>Louis has never been very good at volume control.</i>
</p>
<p>Or the one where Louis insults Nick's hair, and then tries to apologise. A lot.</p>
            </blockquote>





	baby, we're the new romantics

**Author's Note:**

> Nick got his hair cut about a month ago. I took some liberties with the timeline. Obviously it's mostly grown back now. It is, after all, just hair. This isn't meant to be a commentary on Nick's personal grooming choices, or anything like that. I just needed something not too serious that Louis could make a joke about.
> 
> Thanks so much to **onthehill** for looking this over for me! Title is from Taylor Swift's "New Romantics", because why not.

Louis isn't really surprised to see Nick Grimshaw at Harry's pre-tour party.

What he _is_ surprised by is Nick's new haircut.

Unfortunately, he's never been very good at holding his tongue. Which is why he leans forward and shouts over the whole room, "Hey, Grimmy, what did you do to your hair? Had a fight with a lawn mower?"

Louis has also never been good at volume control.

The thing is, he expects Nick to throw back some quip and laugh, all bright and amused like he usually is.

Instead, Nick blinks at him from afar, and turns away. Louis is left starting after him, feeling vaguely sick from all the beer he's drunk so far tonight.

"Louis," Harry says sadly from next to him. "You hurt his feelings."

"Psh," says Louis. "He's _fine_."

Even from this far, though, he'd seen the way Nick's face had closed off.

"You should apologise," Harry says.

"Who should apologise?" Niall asks, appearing from nowhere.

"Louis insulted Nick's hair," Harry says.

"Oh, yeah, I heard that," Niall says. "You're really loud, Tommo."

"I just asked him what he'd done with it!" Louis says. He chooses not to make a joke about being loud. He's growing as a person, he is.

"I think it looks okay," Niall says. "Bit unexpected, maybe."

"That was my point!" Louis says.

"You didn't have to shout it over the whole room," Harry says. He pushes away from the table. "I'm gonna go say hi."

Louis watches him move across the room, watches him reach Nick and pull him into a hug. Nick's whole face lights up when he sees Harry coming.

Louis scoffs.

"You shouldn't go after a man's hair," Niall tells him. "You know how sensitive you are about yours."

"I am not," Louis says, and carefully pushes his fringe away from his face. "And I didn't go after his hair, I just wanted to know what he'd done with it."

"You insinuated that you didn't like it," Niall says. Niall and his fancy words; he's either not drunk enough or he's had one too many already when he's pulling those out.

"Someone swallowed a dictionary," Louis says.

"And you did it very loudly," Niall says, ignoring him. "Everyone heard."

"They did not," Louis says. 

He watches Nick talk to Harry. Something Harry says makes Nick roll his eyes and look down. Nick's hand goes to his hair and then he stops. He looks up and spots Louis looking at him. Louis turns away so fast he almost falls off the table.

"Whoa," Liam says, catching his elbow. "Careful, there."

"Where did _you_ come from?" Louis demands.

"The kitchen?" Liam asks, looking confused. "What are we talking about?"

"Louis insulted Grimmy's new haircut," Niall says.

"I did _not_ ," Louis says.

"Oh, yeah, I heard that from the kitchen," Liam says. "Is it that bad?" He swivels around to look. "Oh, he looks good."

Louis looks back at Nick. Of course Nick looks good. He's wearing a leather jacket, his shirt and jeans both dark. He has necklaces and bracelets and rings, and Louis doesn't care much for accessories, but Nick pulls them off really well.

And it's not like his new hair is that bad. It's just different. Sure, Louis might have enjoyed his previous haircut a bit more, but that's neither here nor there.

"I haven't spoken to him in a while, actually," Niall says. "Gonna go say hi."

He heads of in Nick's direction as well. Louis glares after him.

"I mean, it is a change," Liam says. "He barely has the quiff anymore."

"Exactly," Louis says. Far away, Nick is talking to Harry and Niall, looking a tad more subdued than Louis is used to seeing him at parties.

It's probably not Louis's fault, though. Nick's doing a lot of things right now, he's probably just tired. It's not like Louis's random comment could've affected him that much. Nick doesn't care what Louis thinks.

Louis does feel a bit bad, though.

"Do you think Nick looks sad?" he asks Liam without thinking.

Liam looks contemplative. "No?"

"He hasn't come over to talk to us," Louis says. "Or, well, you. And he's barely smiling."

"He's smiling a bit," Liam says.

"But does he look _sad_? He doesn't, right?"

"I don't know," Liam says. "Why are you asking?"

"No reason," Louis says. He looks back at Nick. The thing is, Louis can read Nick Grimshaw pretty well. He has practice.

Nick could definitely stand to look happier right now. He's talking to Harry and Niall for god's sake.

"Harry said I hurt his feelings," Louis says. "But I couldn't have, right?"

"Don't know, mate," Liam says. "Harry knows Nick pretty well."

Louis scoffs again.

Harry and Niall have both disappeared from Nick's side, and no one's come to take their place yet. Nick's just standing there by himself. Louis can see him look down at his phone and run a hand through his hair. He frowns and fluffs his hair up a bit, then seems to roll his eyes at himself and forcefully shoves his phone in his pocket.

Oh god, what if Louis _did_ hurt his feelings?

Nick just looks so _weird_. Louis didn't mean to do that at all.

He'll just have to go over there and kiss it better.

Wait, what.

"What?" Louis yelps.

Liam startles next to him, almost spilling his drink. "What?" he asks. "What's going on?"

"Nothing," Louis says. "Absolutely nothing."

"Alright," Liam says, sounding confused.

Louis keeps staring at Nick.

Well. At least he sort of has a plan now.

~

Louis decides to implement _half_ of the plan.

He'll leave the whole kissing thing out. Stupid idea in the first place. Not sure why he even thought of that. Not a real plan.

He can go over to Nick and try to, like, actually apologise or something, though.

It just takes a while, because once people gather around Nick they don't leave. So Louis has a drink and then he has two and then he has some more and all the while he keeps an eye on Nick.

Finally, Nick disappears to the toilets. Louis considers following him, but that would probably be a bit weird. Instead he waits for Nick to come back and intercepts him between the bar and where his friends are waiting. Louis is very strategic. An actual mastermind.

"Hey," he says, very casually walking up to Nick and obstructing his path. He has to elbow some random guy out of the way to get to him, but it's fine.

Nick blinks at him. "Hi?"

"Fancy seeing you here," Louis says. Then he thinks a little too hard about the word "fancy" and has to step on his own foot.

"Right," Nick says slowly. He's gotten himself some cocktail from the bar. He takes a sip from it, lips wrapped around the straw, big hands holding the glass daintily.

God, Nick has _hands_. Louis has always known that, he's just tried to not think about it.

Louis has to clear his throat.

"So, listen," he says. "About that thing I said before."

Nick's eyebrows go up. "What thing?"

Louis rolls his eyes. It's a bit hard, considering how sloshed he is, but he thinks he manages pretty well.

"You know," he says. "About your new haircut."

Nick's face goes blank. "Ah, have any more comments?" His hand seems to accidentally go to his hair before he can stop himself. Louis follows the movement with his eyes.

"Yes," he says.

Nick's eyebrows rise again. "Well, go on then."

Nick's taken off his leather jacket at some point. He has the stupidest tattoos on his arms.

"What is it with your tattoos?" Louis asks, genuinely curious.

Nick gives him a flat look. "Right," he says. "Well, this has been a lovely chat—"

"Wait," Louis says, grasping for Nick's wrist and almost sloshing Nick's drink over both of them. "Wait, no, no. The hair. About your hair."

"About my hair," Nick repeats.

"It's not that bad," Louis blurts.

"Wow," Nick says after a pause, and pulls his hand away from Louis. "I'm glad it's not too offensive for you, in that case."

"No," Louis says, frowning. "That's not what I meant."

"Alright," Nick says, and sips on his drink again. His cheeks hollow out and Louis's mind goes momentarily blank. Fucking hell.

"I mean," he tries again. "What do I mean?"

"Haven't the faintest, love," Nick says. "You're quite pissed, aren't you?"

"Am not," Louis says mulishly. "I'm trying to, like, apologise. Get it?"

Nick furrows his brow. "Sure."

"I mean it," Louis says. "It's kind of nice, actually." He reaches a hand out for Nick's hair. "That curly bit's cute."

Nick looks unimpressed. "Alright," he says, and pushes his hand away. "This has been fun, but my friends are waiting for me."

Louis blinks up at him. "Oh," he says.

"You know," Nick says. "The people who don't judge me based on my haircuts." He pauses. "Much."

"But," Louis says. "I'm sorry? I was just surprised by it. Like, it makes your head look a lot bigger."

Nick puts a hand over his face. "God."

"Well, that's not a bad thing," Louis says. "Makes it easier to spot you in a crowd, you know?"

"Is this really happening?" Nick asks.

"I mean, I am going to miss the quiff," Louis says. "But it'll grow back. It's hair, you know." He leans in to whisper that last part conspiratorially. 

Nick pushes him back again, firmly but gently. "Honestly," he says. "This has been lovely. And you should really go home and drink some water before going to bed. Have a nice night."

Louis frowns. With a blink Nick has moved past him and is walking away.

Niall swims up to him from nowhere. "Did you tell him his big head makes him easy to spot in a crowd?"

Louis looks at him. "Did I?"

Niall just claps him on the back and laughs.

Louis needs another drink.

~

Louis wakes up the next afternoon with a monster of a hangover and the vague feeling he fucked up last night.

It takes him almost half the day to remember what exactly he did. When he does he considers smothering himself with a pillow. He doesn't have any close by, though, so he just buries his face in his arms and groans.

It's okay, though. Armed with a post-hangover clear head and a good amount of tea, Louis knows exactly what to do.

He can totally fix this.

_@Louis_Tomlinson: Really loving this season of X Factor! Especially @grimmers's new hair!_

Louis sends off the tweet, and sets his phone down, feeling proud of himself. He's got this all under control.

~

It's a disaster. Everyone thinks he's being sarcastic, even Nick.

_@grimmers: @Louis_Tomlinson wow I'm flattered [unimpressed face emoji]_

Louis groans and throws his phone to the other end of the sofa. Then he goes and retrieves it, and texts Harry.

_give me nick's number!_

_Why?_

_because I need it obviously_

_What for?_

_to FUCKING TEXT HIM WHAT DO YOU THINK_

Harry gives him Nick's number.

Louis saves it as "NICK WHAT THE FUCK [octopus emoji]" and sends him a text immediately.

_I FUCKING MEANT IT_

_Who is this?_ comes Nick's text.

_who the bleeding hell do you think it is??_

_Mum?_

_YOUR mum_

_yeah that's what I said?_

Louis snorts.

_it's louis ffs_

_louis who?_

_you fucking know who_ , Louis sends, gritting his teeth.

_tomlinson?_

_wow a+ but not impressed by your lack of a harry potter joke tho I mean I practically handed it to you. Too easy?_

_i fell asleep during that movie,_ Nick says.

Louis stares at his phone. God help him, he's endeared.

_were you like massively tired?_ he asks. _because then I could probably let it slide. Not sure if liam can though. You've let him down_

_god that's like disappointing a puppy_ , says Nick, so at least he has some sense. _why don't you run along now and go bother him_

Louis frowns. _hey!! I'm trying to apologise here! keep up, will you, you're getting slow in your old age_

He regrets that one as soon as he sends it, but it's just _banter_. Nick's not actually that old. It's just what Louis used to poke him about. It reminds him of old times. (Ha, old.)

_sorry_ , Nick says. _can't talk rn, too many twitter replies to get through_

Louis shouts silently.

_don't read that shit! They're all wankers!_

_but they all have such lovely opinions_ , Nick says. 

_I wasn't joking!_ Louis says. _I really meant it! I like your stupid hair!_

He switches to Twitter, and goes into his own replies. They're a goddamn mess, as always, but now Nick's getting a ton of it, too. Louis groans.

_I'm sorry_ he sends. _i didn't mean to. I wasn't thinking_

Nick doesn't get back to him. Louis sends him several messages that are just emojis in a row. Nothing comes in response. Not even to Louis's frankly amazing collection of every kind of animal twice with sunglasses emojis between them.

Louis sighs and rests his phone against his forehead. He feels all guilty inside, thinking of what a mess he's cooked up. And Nick still doesn't believe him.

He just has to try harder.

~

"So, Louis," the interviewer says. "What's all this beef between you and Grimmy?"

Louis blinks at her innocently.

"There's no beef," he says. "I genuinely like his haircut and wanted to mention it on Twitter." He tries to come off as sincere as possible.

Niall snickers besides him. Louis elbows him.

The interviewer looks like she thinks she's in on the joke. "Of course," she says. "Harry, what do you think about Grimmy's haircut?"

"It's nice," Harry says. "Yeah, I like it." He smiles a little. The interviewer totally believes him. Everyone believes him. He's telling the truth, of course, but so is Louis, dammit. Fucking Harry.

"I mean," Louis says loudly, and she pivots back to him. "I was a bit taken aback at first, because his quiff's sort of like Harold's locks here, you know what I mean? You think they'll always be there."

The interviewer laughs. "Yeah, it is a bit weird to see him without it, isn't it?"

"Yeah," Louis says without thinking. "Wait, I mean, no? I mean. It's nice."

Liam makes a sympathetic noise next to him. The interviewer moves on. Shit.

"What are you doing?" Harry asks after the interview's over.

"Trying to tell Nick I like his hair," Louis says. "Obviously."

Harry squints at him. "You're being serious."

"Yes," Louis says widening his eyes. "Is that so hard to believe?"

Harry still looks suspicious. "You know you just made things worse, right?"

Louis sighs. "Story of my fucking life."

Niall starts humming the song.

"You stay out of this," Louis says.

"Maybe it won't be that bad," Liam says, throwing his arm around Louis's shoulders.

Louis, Niall and Harry sigh in unison. They all know how the press works.

The headlines read "Louis Tomlinson thinks Grimmy's new haircut is 'weird'."

Louis considers buying the papers just to set them on fire.

~

Louis thinks of several ways to fix this mess, but in the end he figures the best solution is the easiest.

Nick is ignoring his texts, and anything he'll say on Twitter will be read as sarcastic, and he feels weird putting anything on Instagram.

And it's not really about doing anything public. It's about Louis totally putting his foot in his mouth, and messing up Nick's Twitter replies and Google alerts for days now, and more than anything it's about him possibly hurting Nick's feelings.

This needs a personal touch.

As usual, he turns to Harry.

_give me nick's address_

_What do you need it for? :(_ comes Harry's reply.

_to send him fucking flowers what do you think?_

_He likes hydrangeas,_ Harry says.

Louis rolls his eyes. _just give me the address Haz_

_just be nice_ , Harry says.

_I'm nice!!!!!_ Louis sends.

_just don't mess him about_

Louis pauses. _i'm not gonna. promise_

Harry sends him the address. _remember, hydrangeas!_

Louis rolls his eyes and calls the car.

Hydrangeas. Honestly.

~

Nick looks quite bewildered when he opens the door. He doesn't even invite Louis in immediately, he just stands there. Nick's dog is nosing at Louis's feet.

"Hi?" Louis asks.

Nick steps back and motions for Louis to come in. Louis has to sidestep Nick's dog, shuffling awkwardly past her in the small hallway, careful not to step on her paws.

"I don't know why I wasn't expecting this," Nick says.

"Your dog is very enthusiastic," Louis says.

"She loves people," Nick says. "And she thinks you have a treat for her."

"I don't," Louis tells her. "Sorry, Pig."

"You know her name," Nick says.

"Everyone knows her name," Louis says. "You talk about her all the bloody time. She has paps taking pictures of her."

"She's proper famous," Nick says. He sounds fond.

"It suits her," Louis says. He leans down and pets her head. She seems delighted by it.

"What are those?" Nick asks.

"What?" Louis asks, looking up at him.

"Those," Nick asks, pointing at the hydrangeas Louis is holding.

Louis might have stopped by a flower shop. Louis might be losing it a little.

"Hydrangeas," Louis says, and straightens up. "Um."

"Why do you have hydrangeas?" Nick asks.

"I don't know," Louis says. He presents them to Nick. "Well, put them in the water, for god's sake, don't let them die."

Nick takes them carefully. "Right," he says.

"Chop chop," Louis says.

Nick looks baffled. He walks to the living room, Louis and Pig following him.

"Do you have a vase?" Louis asks.

"Of course I do," Nick says. "I have loads of vases. Somewhere."

"The lady who sold them to me said you might need to cut the ends a bit. I mean, they're gonna die soon anyway, so not sure what the point is, but just so you know."

"I know how to put flowers in a vase," Nick says. "God. What are you doing here?"

"Harry didn't tell you I was coming?" Louis asks.

"Harry knew?"

"I asked him for the address."

"What do you need the address for?" Nick asks. "You've been here before."

"At parties," Louis says. He's ended up at Nick's place, sure. He's never really come over, not like this. "I've always come with people. Can't even remember getting home most of the time. Sure as hell couldn't remember your bloody address."

"Ah," Nick says. "Well. Why did you come then?"

"To apologise," Louis says. "Obviously."

Nick looks over at him. He's got the flowers in a vase now, and he's just fluffing them around, like he's not sure what to do with them.

"You've done that quite a lot already," he says.

"Not properly," Louis says. "And not in person, you know, while sober."

Nick looks confused. "It wasn't even that bad, you know. What you said? I had blond hair once. You should've heard what my friends said about it. So you didn't like my hair. I didn't have a cry about it."

Louis folds his arms. "Well, I didn't think you did."

"Then why all this?" Nick asks. "Why all the apologies? Why Twitter, why the interviews, why—"

"Because I felt bad!" Louis says. "And you were sad."

Nick stares at him. "Good rhyming."

Louis snorts. "I should become a songwriter."

"Might become famous," Nick says. "Get a hit or two here and there. No big deal."

Louis toes at the floor. "To be fair, none of the songs I've properly written on have ever been hits or anything."

"Well, there's still time," Nick says.

"Yeah," Louis says. "Anyway, do you accept my apology then?"

"You're really here just for that?" Nick asks.

"Well," Louis says. "Yeah."

Nick gives him a contemplative look. "I don't understand why you care this much."

Louis falters. "What?"

"Why do you care so much? Like, if you were telling the truth in those interviews—"

"It was just one interview," Louis says. "They just put it in all the papers."

"Why did you do all that?" Nick asks. "I mean, it wasn't really such a big deal. Before you went on Twitter, at least."

"I wasn't joking there," Louis says. "You're great on X Factor. Like, all of you, not just your hair."

"Thanks," Nick says. "Still, though. Why did you go to all that trouble?"

Louis shrugs one shoulder. "Because," he says. He swallows. "Why did _you_ care? I thought you didn't give a shit what I thought."

"Who says I did?" Nick asks.

"Harry," Louis says.

Nick opens his mouth, then closes it. "What?"

"Well, he said I hurt your feelings," Louis says. "At first. And I thought, surely not. Surely I couldn't. You wouldn't even care what I said. But then you looked all weird, and then I came over to talk to you and I made it worse, and I kept trying to fix it, and—it was supposed to be funny, at first, you know? Before I fucked it up on Twitter, I mean. At the party, it was supposed to be a laugh. But you didn't laugh."

Nick's looking at him carefully. Louis takes a deep breath.

"So," he says. "I'm really sorry if I hurt your feelings. If I did. You know what, I'm not really sure anymore if you did care, but like, if you did. Your hair's nice. Besides, it's just hair."

Nick presses his mouth into a line. "You also said that I had a big head."

"You do," Louis says. "It's not a bad thing. It's just you."

Nick raises his eyebrows.

"I didn't mean for it to escalate," Louis says. "And I didn't expect people to not believe me, when I was telling the truth. I quite like the hair. It's grown on me. Not literally, that'd be gross."

Nick leans against the sofa. "It's been a few really strange days," he says. "Like, all this press that I didn't expect, and all these ridiculous articles, and Twitter's been so fucking stupid—"

"Sorry," Louis says. "Sorry about that."

"And I was so annoyed about the fact that, like, more than all of that, what bothered me was the thought you might not like my goddamn hair."

Louis blinks. "What?"

"Like, that's what bothered me the most," Nick says. "Ridiculous, innit?"

"A bit," Louis says. "Maybe."

Nick shrugs and crosses his arms. He still looks careful. Louis tries to quickly sort through all of this.

"So you do care about what I think," Louis says.

"Suppose I do," Nick says. "A bit." He makes a face.

Louis really hopes he hasn't got this wrong.

"Well, I care about what you think of me," he says. 

"Ah," Nick says.

Louis folds his hands. "And I cared a whole lot about making you sad. I felt rotten about it. I didn't mean to."

Nick nods. "Okay."

"And I've kind of been doing this because I wanted you to see I didn't mean it, but I also just wanted you to pay attention to me."

"Oh," Nick says, blinking.

"Because I might fancy you. A bit."

"Just a bit," Nick says. He looks surprised, but not, like, disgusted or anything, so that's good.

"So," Louis says, and lets out a shaky breath.

"So," Nick says. A tiny smile appears on his face. Louis could kiss him. Louis wants to kiss him.

He takes a tiny step closer. "I'm sorry."

"I've gotten that," Nick says.

"Can I kiss you?" Louis asks. His stomach swoops.

"In apology?" Nick asks.

Louis shakes his head. "That'd be a weird apology."

"Probably," Nick says. "Yeah, alright then."

Louis steps right up to Nick. "Really?"

"I mean, if you want to," Nick says. "I wouldn't mind, I suppose."

"Don't mind" isn't that encouraging, but the tiny flush on Nick's cheeks is.

Louis goes up on his tiptoes, hands settling on Nick's arms. "Your hair really isn't that bad," he says, and presses his lips to Nick's.

It's a proper kiss. Like, an actually proper kiss. Nick's hands are on Louis's waist, holding him close. Louis's hands are in Nick's hair. Louis is kissing Nick Grimshaw.

It's fucking great.

"This is great," Louis says, briefly pulling back.

"Is it?" Nick asks. He looks a bit dazed.

"I've been thinking about this for ages."

Nick's eyes widen slightly. "Really?"

Louis kisses him again. He figures that's answer enough.

~

"So when you said ages, how long are we really talking?" Nick asks.

Louis looks up from where he's playing with Pig on the kitchen floor. "What?"

"How long have you been wanting to kiss me?" Nick asks. He's making dinner for them both. Louis suggested ordering in, but apparently Nick had a plan. The plan involved a beef and veggie stir-fry. Louis wasn't complaining.

Louis shrugs. Pig grabs the fluffy giraffe from his hand and jumps back, urging him to come get it. "I don't know," Louis says. "A while. Why?"

"No reason," Nick says. He pours more soy sauce into the frying pan. "Just, you know. Same."

Louis turns his head so fast he almost gets whiplash. "What? Really?"

Nick shrugs. "Well, yeah."

Louis can feel his face doing embarrassing things. "Oh," he says.

"Yeah," Nick says.

Louis bites down on his lip. "Really?"

Nick rolls his eyes. "Yes, really."

Louis tries to say something, but it's kind of hard to do when he's smiling that wide.

"Jesus," Nick says. "Come here."

Louis doesn't have to be told twice. He scrambles up and wraps his arms around Nick's neck.

"Wait, shit, I'm stirring," Nick says, trying to hold onto Louis and take the pan off the heat at the same time.

Louis laughs and kisses him.

"A while then?" he asks after they've almost burned the food together and Nick is cursing up a storm while Pig runs around their legs.

"Oh, shut up," Nick says. He sounds fond.

Louis grins. He's going to send a gift basket to Nick's hairdresser.


End file.
